My Infertility Journey: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly With IVF Med Costs (Part 36)

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The IVF coordinator at the clinic was very helpful with answering my questions and taking me through every medicine I would need, in order, and how much of each I would need. The antibiotic, the prednisone, and the Valium were the cheapest and the most common drugs on the list. The only drug my husband would have to take would be the antibiotic. I would have to take everything else, including my own doses of the antibiotic. The prednisone was to help implantation by reducing the likelihood of the body rejecting any embryos. The Valium was for me to take before they did the egg retrieval. I guess a lady needs to relax before having a large needle inserted through her vaginal wall!

The most expensive medication was going to be something called Menopur, which is a medication used for making the body produce pregnancy hormones. It wasn't expensive as an individual dose per se (only around $75 per vial), but I would need to take 33 vials of it! I found that some people who have been through IVF and have unused Menopur often sell it online for cheap, so I started looking around to see what was available. I also comparison shopped at different online pharmacies and found some places where I could get it for $33 to $45 a vial.

The Gonal-F was $450 per injection, of which I would need three. That's the medication that has the Compassionate Care program attached to it, so I could probably get that one for free or at a significant discount. Then there were a couple of other injections meant to stimulate the production of eggs and to hold off ovulation until the eggs could be retrieved (I was told to expect hot flashes and maybe night sweats while taking that one). There were also the progesterone vaginal suppositories, which I would need to take 3 a day for 10 weeks (before and after embryo transfer). That's a lot of medication!

At best, I figured I could expect to be spending $2,500 on medicine if I was able to get the Gonal-F for free. While not the best time to be maxing out my credit cards when I'm trying to keep the balances low to qualify for a mortgage, babies come first. I've got priorities!